SpaceX successfully launched its commercial rocket today marking the first time a private company has sent a spacecraft to the space station. The Falcon 9 rocket along with the Dragon capsule is loaded with the hopes and dreams of hundreds of students from around the USA.

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), launched June 2010 by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC, is an important U.S. national Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education initiative that gives students across a community the ability to design and propose real experiments to fly in low Earth orbit, first aboard the final flights of the Space Shuttle, and then on the International Space Station (ISS)—America’s newest National Laboratory.

The SpaceX Falcon/Dragon ship launch successfully marks a new era in commercial space transportation. It will deliver cargo, for now, and astronauts later, saving money for NASA and the government.

Wired magazine has an excellent series on the SpaceX program as well as its own portal on commercial space efforts called ‘Open Space’ run by Betsy Mason, Jason Paur, Adam Mann, and Dave Mosher. Brandon Keim did a fun Star Trek post on Could a 21st Century USS Enterprise Really Fly? that is worth reading, although I don’t think it is technically in the Open Space section.

Here is a simple list of the student projects. For a full breakdown, you can visit the SSEP website where each proposal summary is listed. Most of the projects are biology or chemistry projects from grades five through 16.

San Marino, California: Effect of Microgravity on the Antibacterial Resistance of P. aeruginosa

West Hills, California: Microgravity Wine

Hartford, Connecticut: How Does Parathyroid Hormone Affect Changes in Bone Mass in Microgravity?

Washington, DC: Does Hay Bacillus Break Down Human Waste (Represented by Brown Egg) in Microgravity as Well as in Earth Gravity? (Honorable mention: What Does Microgravity Have to Do with Toothpaste?)

Houston, Texas: Hepatocyte Development in Bioscaffolds infused with TGFB3 in Microgravity

SECOND EXPERIMENT SELECTED FOR FLIGHT: Will Vitamin C Preserve Bone Density in Microgravity?

El Paso, Texas: The Effect of Microgravity on the Use of Cactus Mucilage for Water Purification

The SSEP Review Process and Board

For Mission 1 to ISS, a total of 41,200 grade 5-14 students in the 12 participating communities were given the opportunity to design real experiments to fly aboard the ISS. There were a total of 779 proposals submitted by student teams, with 382 forwarded for review by SSEP Step 1 Review Boards in the communities.

The review goes well beyond what is typical of reviews for professional research proposals given there was a deep recognition that the process, and the comments back, were vitally important teachable moments for the student researchers that worked so hard on their proposals. SSEP wants to immerse students in real science. The review process is very much a part of real science and that process therefore needs to be transparent, and a learning experience.

The review board consists of an expert team from universities to government agencies like the NIH.

Dan Crooks, National Institutes of Health / National Institute of Child Health & Human Development

Dr. Julie Edmonds, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Dr. Nicholas Fingland, Georgetown University Medical Center

Dr. Jeff Goldstein, National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. As the creator of SSEP, Dr. Goldstein is its Program Director. He is also the Center Director for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE). Jeff is a nationally recognized science educator, and planetary scientist, who has dedicated his career to the public understanding of science and the joys of learning.

From the NYTIMES: Testing Private Ship to the Space Station, and Wine, Too by Kenneth Chang

‘In space, how quickly does grape juice turn to wine? Two California high school students hope to find out soon. Their experiment is one of 15 aboard a rocket scheduled to blast off early Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to the International Space Station. “We think it’s going to ferment faster,” said Max Holden, a ninth grader at Chaminade College Preparatory in West Hills, Calif.

But there is no guarantee that the seven-inch tube of yeast and grape juice will ever reach its destination.’